Red Roses
by springshine
Summary: “He cares, he cares not, he cares…” Will House let his own insecurities push those in his life away? HouseWilson friendship no slash. HouseCameron friendship with slightly implied only romance later.


Red Roses

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Chapter One

The mist that came off the water as it projected through the fountain splashed onto his face. As he wiped the water away from his lips he remembered how much he needed to get to the much-needed paperwork. Walking leisurely down the hallway, Dr. House was greeted by his colleagues.

"Dr. House, we have something for you to look at," Dr. Cameron told him. She looked at him with awe she spoke. Not the kind of awe that begat reverence, but she was always impressed with his skills as a physician. Personally she didn't quite know how to approach him. Medicine and science could be abstract at times, yes, but a great deal less abstract than showing her feelings. It was much easier to approach him from a medicinal nature than a personal one.

"No 'Hi', 'Hello', 'How's the leg?' today? Just jump right into the work Cameron. I understand. You care nothing about me," House said sarcastically.

_Quite the contrary,_ she thought. He does seem to call things on the mark. How she wished to get inside his head for only but a moment. Nervous enough, she could barely ask him private questions much less talk about her personal life. She thumbed through the papers to show him the logistics of the case she had.

"Male, age 42 complaining mostly of muscle weakness," Cameron began.

"Hmmmm...I don't know, maybe its muscle weakness," House said, as he drank the last remnants from his coffee mug. He looked down into his coffee and noticed its lack of fullness. "Cameron would you be a pal and fetch me more coffee?"

Cameron looked at him with her jaw partially dropped. House loved to make her speechless.

"Dr. House we were concerned with his physical fitness level that he still has had so much weakness," Dr. Chase commented.

"Hmmm again. Guy is physically fit and his muscles hurt. Boy I didn't even need to go to medical school to figure that one out. Is it 'avoid the challenge day' and I missed the signups again?" House turned and looked behind him and began walking towards his office. He wished he could get out of clinic duty today, but his leg hurting the last two days wasn't going to work again today with Cuddy.

The trio of sorts followed the older doctor down the corridor. Foreman wanted to ask him about his leg from the previous day but knew that House was a private person when it came to his own health, and would just respond with a snide remark irregardless. House just seemed like his limp was worsening over the last few days.

Opening the door to his office, House took the chart from Cameron and handed her his coffee mug without regard. She shook her head at his disregard and took it over to the coffee pot. Cameron filled his mug with coffee and then almost immediately lost her grasp and sent it spilling to the ground.

"Cameron…" Dr. Chase began as he and Dr. Foreman went towards her. Foreman bent down to pick up the mug and Chase reached out for her hand. "Did you get any on you?" he asked, looking at her hand.

"Just a few drops, nothing major." Cameron didn't like the attention being on her but at the same time she knew House was brewing something sarcastic. Avoiding this was going to be difficult. She grabbed a towel and began cleaning up the spill.

"Looks like the drinks are on you today, Cameron," House said, looking up from his chart momentarily.

There it was. _Kind of the love/hate thing_, she thought. His demeanor was callous at times, but he paid attention to details. Again how she wished she could understand him.

"House, do you think you can at least _try_ to be a little more empathic? She was getting _your_ coffee." Foreman felt a twinge of protectiveness towards Cameron when House would get on her.

"Sorry Cameron. Don't worry, I'll fill it up myself this time," House said.

"Thank goodness for small miracles," Chase told him.

House sat back in his chair with his eyes squinted. Still reviewing the chart, he was curious as well of the symptoms presented. "Irregular heartbeat for an athlete. Did his EKG show any other abnormalities?" House rocked back in his chair, one hand swirling his cane and the other looking through the chart.

"No," Chase began. "He also complained of shortness of breath and back pain. We did a chest X-ray and it came back clear." Chase changed his glance over to Cameron. He noticed she was favoring her hand. "Are you sure you didn't get hurt Cameron?" he asked her.

"I'm fine. I need to tell the patient his status. He seemed anxious to leave," she told him as she stood up.

Foreman followed her suite and walked out with her. Dr. Chase stayed with House. "Do you think Cameron has been more quiet than normal?" Chase asked him concernedly.

"She probably has a lot on her mind with reviews coming up." Rubbing his head, House sat forward and closed the chart. He didn't want Chase to know he was concerned as well. He didn't like showing any kind of compassion around the team. Not wanting to let them think any different of him, or be able to get close. On letting his guard down, House was heavily guarded in that respect. Dr. Chase took the chart and walked out the door.

House sat back again in his chair. He needed to process the single-most pressing issue on his mind right now. Pain. He opened his drawer and pulled out the bottle. Meticulously opening the cap, he drew out two pills. Noticing there were only four left, he made a mental note to talk to Wilson about getting more. He could feel the pain subside in his leg for but a moment. Knowing this was purely psychosomatic; the medication did not work instantaneously like that, he still felt ease feeling the pain meds easing into his body to correct the throbbing.

His silence was broken by the sound of the belligerent calling of his name. His door flew open and Dr. Wilson ran in. "House, we need you out here right away," Wilson told him as he swiftly grabbed the doorframe and came inside. Dr. House stood up and quickly limped over to Wilson. He stopped along the way to grab his cane which has been graciously becoming his lifeline. Closing his eyes he took hold of his leg which had become more bothersome just in the last few minutes and moved it to the path of walking.

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